India,Bengaluru : 12 educational institutions emerged as self-sufficient in power generation. They will soon sell electricity to BESCOM.

BENGALURU: On the rooftops of a few government schools and colleges in the city, a silent revolution is taking place.

By harnessing solar energy, 12 educational institutions (nine schools and three colleges) and one hostel have emerged self-sufficient in power generation. They will soon be able to sell electricity to the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM). The initiative, billed as ‘Sustainable Educational Institutions’, is the brainchild of The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and BESCOM. It is sponsored by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under its Corporate Social Responsibility.

The solar panels installed on the rooftop of a government school in the city

The initiative was launched on October 9 and a fortnight later, the results are impressive. “The meter readings at the three colleges show that about 700 MW of power was generated in each of them till October 25,” said G Rudra Narsimha Rao, Associate Director, Industrial Energy, TERI.

According to Sridhar Babu, Fellow and Area Convenor of TERI’s Educating Youth for Sustainable Development Division, HAL spent more than `1 crore for the project.

The solar panels installed have a capacity ranging from 5 kW to 15 kW, depending on the consumption patterns and availability of terrace space. While the costs vary with capacity, installing a 10-kW panel costs about `12 lakh.

A net metering system is in place to keep track of the excess electricity generated. “However, facilities to store excess power have not been created as the cost of procuring and maintaining UPS, inverter and battery systems was considerably high. So the power goes directly to the grid,” said Rao.

Pronab Dasgupta, Director, Southern Regional Centre, TERI, said the initiative has helped the state government save power and money as it pays the electricity bills of these institutions.

For now, the excess power generated by these panels goes into the grid. After a certain period, the total amount will be calculated and a sum credited to the institution. “During summer, the excess power will be considerable when the schools are closed. That is when the city’s power demand will also be high,” Dasgupta said.

For schools, the consumption cost of one unit of power is `5.60.

But BESCOM purchases the same unit at `9.56, Sridhar Babu told City Express.